Gretchen and Mike Perbix are new to the orchard business and Sweetland Orchard is the new name for the established orchard that they bought, Bob’s Bluebird Orchard, “We became interested in orchard ownership a number of years ago when family friends who run an orchard mentioned their interest in retirement. We thought for a while that we might be able to buy their orchard but by the time we figured that it wouldn’t work out, we were already committed to the idea. We were interested in how we would be able to make a living while living a rural lifestyle and being as self-sufficient as possible.”
With that in mind the Perbixs set about looking for the right set up to fulfill their dream, “One of the things about Bob’s orchard that was attractive to us is that his approach to apple growing was different than other orchards we’d been to: instead of growing 10-16 varieties, predominantly developed by the U of M, Bob has planted over 50 varieties of apple trees not to mention plums, pears, cherries, and apricots.”
This means that the couple have a larger selection of early fall apples then many orchards in the area. Gretchen shared a story about earlier this season, “At our first market last week, we had eight apple varieties plus pears — which is a lot more than most apple growers have at this time of the year. Folks would approach our table and say wow — I’ve never heard of any of these kinds of apples before. In one week, we’ve already been able to introduce so many people to new varieties of apples, and that’s what we’ll be doing all season long. We have everybody’s favorite varieties (Zestar, SweeTango, Honeycrisp), but we have a lot of older varieties too that have a lot in their favor.”
Gretchen, who is currently a teacher, and Mike both have backgrounds in education and are excited to add that element to their orchard, “Besides doing tours at the orchard, we’d like to develop ways of prompting people to think about apples differently. We also want to do something educational related to cider. We also believe that an apple orchard can be a great place for family and friends and in addition to the educational things we’d like to do, we’re also hoping to do things like have apple-picking parties.”
Sweetland Orchard products are available each week during the fall at the Mill City Farmers Market. They are a great example of how the market changes as the produce changes during our Minnesota growing season.
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